


Soft Sunsets and Lost Promises

by Queenie18



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Break Up, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Alec Lightwood, Immortal Husbands Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood Break Up, This has the potential to be a bigger AU but I don’t know, Warlock Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenie18/pseuds/Queenie18
Summary: How will Magnus react? Knowing that Alec is doomed to forever whilst he will love his mortal lover until the world fades away.“I wish you were like me.” He whispers his confession to the air. “I wish you were immortal, my beautiful, wonderful Magnus. Sometimes I’d like to imagine it, a life with you till we both drift to the next one, happy and content.”—Or an AU where Malec may just both be immortal and pining and completely oblivious to the truth of one another.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 41
Kudos: 187





	Soft Sunsets and Lost Promises

Alec has never gotten over the sight of the warm fires of sunrise as he lays in bed with his lover.

He smiles down at the mundane by his side. Mags is beautiful. He is exotic, new and exciting - a contradictory swab of black hair and golden brown skin. Alec has been enamoured from the first moment he had spied Magnus in the Elizabethan Court.

He is magnetic. He draws people toward him like moths to firelights. Alec has been under his thrall as soon as his queen had introduced them.

 _Yes,_ he had thought when he had taken Magnus’ warm hand. _Yes, this could be my home._

It isn’t easy their relationship. They live in a world that deems their love impossible. And every touch, every forbidden world shared between them feels as though Alec is reaching heaven and his death at the same time.

He reaches out and strokes his finger down Magnus’ golden cheek. “Do you know what you do to me, my love?”

Alec has never thought he’d find love. He has been doomed to an eternity alone, wallowing in the shame of his feelings and the world that wants to kill him. Only Magnus had arrived, and he made Alec’s life a flush of colour.

Alec wants to marry him.

His eyes drift to his cabinet, where the rings lies. It’s a simple thing, all silver but with a bright golden green gem, entombed in pale blue. Alec hopes to see it on Magnus’ hand, if only in private.

The thought makes Alec’s heart pinch uncomfortably. Just another thing to keep them apart. Subconsciously, Alec raises his hand to his forehead where two singular obsidian horns rest, the things larger where they break skin and curl thinner at the tips.

 _How will Magnus react?_ Knowing that Alec is doomed to forever whilst he will love his mortal lover until the world fades away.

“I wish you were like me.” He whispers his confession to the air. “I wish you were immortal, my beautiful, wonderful Magnus. Sometimes I’d like to imagine it, a life with you till we both drift to the next one, happy and content.”

Alec huffs at the thought. It’s like dreaming of a world free from prejudice. A world where the poor don’t go hungry and wars aren’t started from greed.

But Alec will tell his lover. And then he will ask him to marry him as unofficially as they can, and Alec will love him until he leaves the world. And then Alec will love him long after.

A shuffle breaks his thought.

“Alexander.” A sleepy mumble utters.

Alec grins wide and leans down to kiss Magnus’ lips in the soft light of morning.

“Morning, my love. You look especially beautiful today.”

Magnus hums, and Alec’s hearts echoes the rhythm. This is what he lives for. This man, this mundane, this mortal is what makes him awake in the morning. Magnus could ask him to kneel, and Alec would obey. He doesn’t even think Magnus knows the power he holds. It makes him indefinitely more precious.

“My Duke.” Magnus giggles, and runs cheeky fingers down his chest. “Aren’t you sappy today?”

Alec runs a revenant hand down his love’s face. “For you, I’m always sappy.”

Magnus’ chocolate eyes sparkle and Alec leans down to kiss him fully, hardly. His kisses with everything he has, and Magnus runs a hand up his body to rest at his chest, right where his heart lays.

“There you are.” Magnus says. “My darling.”

Alec kisses his chin. “There I am.”

They laugh in each other breaths and don’t leave the bed for the rest of the day.

  
~*~

  
Alec is smiling as he waits at Magnus’ estate. The rings sits snugly in his pocket, and his heart may just soar in the crescendo that his love.

He is going to do it today. By tonight, Alec plans to make Magnus his husband.

The door opens to the sight of a servant, the woman wearing a simple gown of brown. Alec nods politely at her.

“Is Lord Bane here?” He asks.

The woman looks at him, her brows furrowed as she respectfully places her hands in her lap. There is something alike to pity in her features. She frowns as though her next words would be painful.

“My Lord.” She says quietly, head bowed. “I thought you knew.”

Alec frowns, the rings suddenly a weight in his pocket. “What do you mean?”

The women’s kind eyes rise. “He is gone, my Lord.” She winces and looks briefly in the large halls behind her. “He told me to leave this note should you come.”

He takes the note she holds out, the seal unbroken. Alec’s hands are shaking as he opens it, there is the slight scent of sandalwood left in the delicate page. What he reads makes his heart stop, makes his world fade into irrelevance.

_My dearest Alexander,_

_I am sorry, my darling but our story must end here. Thank you for showing me that the world could be beautiful, and not cruel. Only I must be cruel now. We were never promised a happy ending._

_Do not think of me. Be happy as you must._

_Love,_

_~ Magnus_

Alec has suffered many things. He has been kicked out from his born family of the Lightwood Shadowhunters when he became the one thing they hated. Alec had learnt he must never love a man, that he is monster because a demon raped his mother. He has learnt that there is many, many less desirable aspects in life.

But Magnus had taught him to feel again.

Only he has left Alec too. He is always alone. Maybe he’s cursed to be. 

Maybe his demon father had placed a curse on his bastard child so that he’ll be forever alone in a cursed world of misery.

Alec feels his entire life freeze. What had a brilliance of colour suddenly when dull, a shade of grey and melancholy.

The notes crumbles in his hand.

The ring sinks to the bottom of the river Thames.

Alec leaves London and never comes back.

Love is a horrid thing. And the Alexander Magnus had known had died from a broken heart.

Only years later, he wonders what happened to his love, his Magnus. He had hoped Magnus loved again. He was never burdened like Alec. He loved everyone freely. He could marry a woman. He could never hide from shame. Maybe that was what had driven him away. Shame. Disgust. The pity of loving a twisted, ugly man.

Alec looks at the sunrise on morning in Spain, and feels sick.

  
~*~

  
Alec really, truly hates the nightlife in New York.

Which is expected. His reputation of a warlock is a reclusive one. Alexander Shadow doesn’t like people, and he doesn’t like to talk. While he may be powerful, he has a cold exterior that makes it difficult to make deals with.

He is also, one hundred per cent, incapable of love.

Which was frankly _bullshit_. Alec had loved once. He had loved so much that the entire world had shifted to let himself to live that small dream.

Alec snorts as he accompanies the recent gaggle of Lightwoods to Pandemonium. Alec has this nasty little habit of following his family tree over the years. It’s the great Lightwood legacy. That the obtrusive Alexander Shadow dutifully follows the Lightwoods and no one more. 

It’s true, to an extent. Alec’s downfall had always been his loyalty. And Jace Lightwood reminds him of a boy he once wanted to be parabati with. Henry Herondale, was his name. Alec misses him still. Herondales had always been their own kind of breed. Alec wouldn’t be surprised if Jace was secretly one.

Izzy is similar. She looks nothing like his fair haired sister Mary, and they hold very little characteristics. Mary had been a romantic, gentle soul at heart. But there is a fire in Izzy’s eyes that he had once found in Mary. A passionate flame that will never be snuffed out. Mary would have had loved her, he imagines.

“Follow me.” Alec says to the group as he leads them to the club. “Try not to kill anything you shouldn’t.”

Izzy sniggers. “Of course, _sir_.”

“I was talking to you Jace.” Alec warns and Jace rolls his eyes in answer.

Alec’s stele feels cold in his pocket. His runes are glamoured, as is his horns. He looks like a mundane, and he has spent centuries learning to bury his Shadowhunter characteristics. The only person like him that he can recall is Tessa, and even then she is different. Alec misses her, last he heard from her she was in the England, though they lost contact over the years.

“What is it we’re looking for?” Alec says as he guides them through the sweaty crowds.

 _Mundanes,_ he thinks. Vile things. Always eager for the next body, with little concern beyond themselves.

“Demon.” Izzy answers. “A shapeshifter. They’re trying to sell human blood.” 

Alec frowns at the thought.

“Right. I’ll search the bar area, Izzy you take the left and Jace you take the area in front of us. Do you know the signal?”

They both nod and grin as they separate through the crowds.

Some warlocks love places like this. Alec guesses it makes them feel alive when immortality rots their hearts to stone. Alec always preferred the comfort of an old book. Call him an old soul.

He thinks that a warlock owns this place. The High Warlock of Brooklyn, he believes. Alec doesn’t know his name, he hasn’t been entirely active in the Downworld since Valentine and the Circle. He had escaped to his home and had hid from the shame of his family’s wrongdoings years before. 

He leans against the bar, raising his hand to call the bartender over. As he waits, Alec scans the club for signs of a demon. Their magic signature is easy enough to see. As they change forms, a little flicker of red sparks as a magic signature hisses from them.

Alec trails his eyes up to the pedestal where a group lounge on the large sofa like it’s a throne. There is many there, all dressed provocatively, with flat, bored looks as they stretch their limbs out. And in the centre is obviously the owner of the place.

When Alec looks at the man on the throne, he feels his heart literally thunder to a stop.

Because there, on the pedestal, dressed in glitter and makeup and embraced by bodies - is _Magnus_. As young and exotic as they say he left Alec.

Alec’s mouth opens in a gasp. He could never forget Magnus. Even in his darkest days, when existing felt like a struggle, Magnus had been there. He is embedded in Alec’s mind. And that man, looking sexual and adrift, he is Magnus. And yet, not.

“Magnus.” Alec whispers in the noise of the music.

_How? Why? What?_

Alec can feel his magic thrum under his skin. It feels like a fleeting, scared thing trying to break free. He feels like he is seven again, crying at the sight of demonic horns. Or he is fifty three meeting the love of his life next to Queen Elizabeth’s side.

“Magnus.” He says again, and a tether in him snaps.

His glamour drops as his horns curve out in the open. Alec shakes as his magic pours out in the open, great emerald tendrils meandering in the air as he collapses to the floor. His heart feels too fast, his head too heavy. The world is a daze in front of him.

And his eyes cannot leave Magnus.

Magnus, who was staring at him in something alike to disbelief as Alec falls to the floor on his knees. 

“Alec?” Someone calls out. “Shit, Alec! Are you okay?”

Alec can’t look away. He had mourned. He had cried and yearned over the years. And Magnus sits here like a king, as though he hadn’t broken Alec’s heart as he left. He doesn’t look like Alec’s Mags. Not really. His eyes are wide, a guard so heavily dressed over him that he seems impenetrable. And he dresses far too flamboyant as though it is armour. Alec’s Magnus had been an enthralling being of light and gentle kindness.

But this must be him. Magnus holds himself in the guard only immortals can achieve. It shouldn’t have been possible. 

Alec swears he sees Magnus whisper Alexander at him.

Alec groans as his magic flares up again and he sobs as it claws through him. He leans down and places his hands in his head, trying to drown out the noise in his head. _It’s too much, it’s too much, it’s too much..._

There’s someone in front of him. He can only make out tight leather pants wrapped around muscled legs. Alec groans as he reminisces on days loving the sunset, and a smile so angelic.

“Alexander?” Someone asks.

Alec knows that voice.

He looks up, taking in golden green cat’s eyes and a beautiful face he had loved. They look at each other, and Alec takes an unsteady breath. How is this possible? Did Magnus always know? Did he leave so they couldn’t be together?

Was Magnus so disgusted by the thought of forever that he left Alec to believe he died? 

Alec wonders whether Magnus will ever done ruining his heart.

“Magnus.” He says.

Magnus gasps and falls to the floor by him.

Alec’s magic is greedy as it tries to stretch toward him. It’s green claws wrap around the blue sparks around Magnus. There is no doubt what they are.

“It’s you.” Magnus whispers in awe.

Alec tries to smile and fails. It feels like heartbreak.

“It’s you.” He replies.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I’m sorry I randomly disappeared. School has started and I’m in my most important year of my education and so I’ve been swamped. I haven’t abandoned my other fics, I promise! 
> 
> I found this in my vast number of drafts and cleared it up to post. I think I had plans to make it a part of a greater AU but I don’t know whether I’ll continue it. Hope you enjoyed it anyways! ❤️


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